Three-strikes bill hung up

Activists, lawmakers and law enforcement officials are pressing for passage of a bill eliminating parole options for three-time violent felons, according to activists Les Gosule and Mike Scully.

The bill is hung up in a six-member conference committee, where it has sat for 226 days.

A 10 a.m. news conference was planned at the Garden of Peace near the State House, a location dedicated to victims of violence.

Gosule has been pushing the legislation for 13 years following the murder of his daughter, Melissa, by a felon with multiple convictions who had been granted early release.

In a statement Tuesday, he said the bill, if it emerges from its long stay before a six-member conference committee, would keep “the worst of the worst off the streets for longer.”

Critics of the bill say its sweep is too broad and its passage will worsen prison overcrowding.

The conference committee negotiating the habitual offender bills (H 3818/S 2080), which also include sections dealing with wiretapping, DNA evidence, school drug zones and mandatory minimum sentences, has had custody of those bills for seven months and 13 days. There are 21 days remaining before formal sessions end for this two-year meeting of the Legislature.